Apple just released a major update (10.0.3) for Final Cut Pro X which includes multicam editing! Different video angles can now be automatically
syncing based on time of the day, timecode, markers, or audio waveforms. You can work seamlessly with different codecs, frame sizes, and frame rates without conversion, which is just great! I made a schoolboy mistake recently where I used my A camera at 25p and the B one at 23.98 and they both had to be synced with my H4n master audio.. I wish I had FCPX back then.

In addition to Multicam, the new update also brings Media relink (yes!), advanced chroma key features, XML 1.1 and broadcast monitoring (in beta).

You can download the update free from the Mac App Store

While there're still no official announcements yet, photographer Stephen Oach posted captures of a Canon employee using an unidentified Canon body with a 200-400mm lens prototype in Kenya... You don't need more to generate an online firestorm amongst photographers!

This camera can either be the long awaited 5D Mk III or the future 7D MkII. The body looks very similar to the 7D but sports a larger LCD screen, doesn't have a pop up flash, the Q button is now on the right side underneath the joystick and there's a new 'Rate' button. Finally there also seems to be a new joystick on the removable battery grip. Because we're getting closer to the release of a 5D MkIII than a 7D MkII, and the no pop up flash thing I would tend to think this is a 5DMkIII. In the other hand it looks so similar to the 7D... Perhaps Canon is planning on merging the 5D and 7D? I don't know how but by looking at the pictures, people say it's a full frame body..? Regarding the the 200-400mm lens prototype, the canon employee said it should be released in March or April.

According to CanonRumours, there could be a CPS event planned in Yokohama at CP+ which is between the 9th and 12th February that "usually lead to some kind of announcement"...

Crossing fingers!

via Canon Rumours and Aperture Academy 

I went to London over the weekend to visit my girlfriend and play the tourist in the United Kingdom's capital. If you haven't done it already, I really recommend visiting London. So many places, so many things happening in the streets! However because of the cold weather, it was easier to take pictures of iconic places rather than street activities (everyone was rushing into stores and Starbucks). I was also really hoping to see the traditional dragon dances in Chinatown (chinese new year) but unfortunately I didn't get to see them. Anyway, here are some of the photos I took over these few days. Everything was shot with a Canon 550D and a Sigma 10-20mm. For some shots I had my tripod, for others, I had to lean on whatever I could find. On a side note, it's funny how some spots are very popular for photographers. Go on the millennium bridge on the opposite side of Saint Paul's Cathedral during sunset and you'll see

Nikon announced its latest top end camera the other day: the D4. A full frame body, lighter, faster, shooting in even darker conditions. With a price tag of around $6000, the D4 is Nikon responses to Canon's 1Dx. Regarding the video aspect, I'm happy to see Nikon finally back in the game with interesting features not even Canon offers yet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nikon's top end camera can finally shoot Full-HD 24p/30p and 720 - 60p. Ok this is not new but finally on par with Canon (we're still missing 1080 at 60p from both).  Nikon is not going for All-i but b-frame encoding at 24 mbps. More interesting: the D4 is the first HDSLR that can send clean uncompressed video output (8bit 4:2:2) and have a simultaneous live view and monitor out feature (apparently only work when no cards are in the camera). This means you can use an external field recorder like the Atomos Ninja, bypass the 29min recording limit while having better image quality. For now the Canon 1Dx doesn't offer clean output by fear of interfering with Canon pro video side but with Nikon's move, I wouldn't be surprised if they change their mind before the release in February.

Audio wise I'm very pleased to see that Nikon implemented a stereo headphone jack for audio monitoring. Again that's a first in HDSLR, a very welcomed one! I'm really - REALLY - hoping to see Canon do the same. The D4 also offers a stereo mic input with on screen audio level metering that can be adjusted manually in a 20 steps range.

The Crop feature in movie mode is worth mentioning as well. You can choose between full frame, 1.5x and 2.7x crop while keeping a full-HD image allowing you to vary the field of view of your lens focal length (a 100mm prime lens can become a 150 or 270mm lens). This can be very handy in some situations but I'm guessing there will be a loss in quality due to the downsizing. Nikon announced reduced moire and aliasing, something all DSLR are struggling with so it's nice to see nikon working on it. Finally the Nikon D4 offers an HTTP interface for remote control (via ethernet or wifi) that is optimised for iOS devices.

video feature run through

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Documentary shot on the Nikon D4

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On a rainy sunday morning

I went to a second hand market this morning hoping to find forgotten lenses and interesting camera bodies. While I didn't find what I was looking for, I still managed to bring back a few stolen shots from here and there. I used a Canon 550D on which I had a Sigma 30mm f/1.4.  I kept it wide open and reduced the amount of light using a variable ND filter. I tweaked the photos using Lightroom to give them an old look... Who said instagram?!

Check out the gallery below (click on any image to enlarge it).

With a friend of mine Jorge Planello, we decided to participate to the Heritage Footstep project: A volunteer led community media project to create a web based digital heritage trail along Salford’s historic main street.  We will focus on two historic locations where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels used to spend time when in Salford-Manchester

One is a pub situated in the Salford Crescent where the two political theorists once drank pints while discussing the theory of communism. To date, we have no tangible evidence of this fact but we will try to explore the myth thought interviews with local residents.

The other one is a library situated in Manchester where Marx and Engels used to meet and discuss politics and economics in the 1840's. This time it's a fact. Indeed, thanks to a letter wrote by Friedrich to Karl in the 70's in which he mentions the specific alcove of that library.

"During the last few days I have again spent a good deal of time sitting at the four-sided desk in the alcove where we sat together twenty-four years ago. I am very fond of the place. The stained glass window ensures that the weather is always fine there...."

- Friedrich Engels

We are still at the pre production stage. So far, Jorge met very nice people who agreed to talk to us about Marx, Engels and these locations while I started to familiarised myself with the library visuals. With Christmas coming up, we won't have time to shoot interviews yet. But I'll keep you posted on how our project progresses.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A mix and match of what I shot during the first day at the BVE North Event 2011 in Manchester. I wish I was more prepared and recorded more of the seminars. Particularly Shane Meadows talk and the Light on the run seminar by Jonathan Harrison. Amongst other things, I had the opportunity to talk with representatives of Atomos about their Samurai and Ninja products, test the new Canon 1DX prototype, see from my own eyes an Arri Alexa, a Sony F3 3D rig, Phantom Flex and learn more about the kino flo lighting system. Regarding sound, Rode and Shure were there showcasing their shotgun mics and shock mount systems. The next Broadcast Video Expo will be in February 2012 in London and should be much bigger. I'll try to cover the event for you!

Yesterday the University of Salford organised an Event at the MediaCityUK to showcase their brand new building full of digital arts and technologies. I brought my camera hoping to get a few shots of what was happening on the inside but I ended up coming too late. Fair enough, I went outside and took a few shots of the quays before the sun completely disappeared. I didn't get much time as the light vanished quite fast and I'll probably come back another day to experiment a bit more but I wanted to quickly explain to you how I obtained water shots.

Before starting to shoot, I knew I wanted to capture the architectures reflection in the water. With the dimming light I could have just gone for a wide aperture and reasonably fast shutter speed to correctly expose the picture. But with these settings, all the waves on the surface of the water would have been frozen, hence shattering the reflections. Instead, I decided to close the aperture to around f/22 and slowed the shutter speed to something like 5 seconds. These settings are technically the same as the previous ones as the image would still be correctly exposed BUT the creative aspect has changed. Indeed, with an aperture of 5seconds, the waves would not appear frozen anymore but blurred, making them disappear, only leaving the reflections in the final composition.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was watching some videos made with the new GoPro HD Hero 2 the other day and I thought it was about time to finish my own GoPro editing of this summer footages. I decided to picture lock the editing and after a bit of colour grading, here's the final result.

Shot entirely with the GoPro Hero HD in 720p 60fps, edited in Premiere Pro CS5.5, Colour graded in Magic Bullet Looks. It was an artistic choice to shoot at 720p instead of 1080p. Indeed, only the 720p mode can record at 60fps which is great for slowing things down and make your images looks more stable.

What I love about this camera is its very small form factor and its ability to be mounted virtually anywhere with the plethora of mounting accessories. This allows some very creative points of view! I highly recommend the LCD bacpac to frame your shots, review your videos on the go and navigate through the otherwise a bit cryptic menus. In optimal situations the images look sharp and contrasty. The construction of the housing feels very sturdy and I never feared to break the camera.

The only main downside to me is the auto focusing problem underwater which seems to be caused by the housing curved lens. This is a known issue reported on the official troubleshooting page. Here's what they say: " We are developing a flat glass adapter / housing specifically for underwater use, thus allowing for the same image sharpness that you enjoy with your GoPro camera above water".  The new GoPro still has the same curved housing though...

November 3rd, 2011

This was a great day for cinephiles with major announcements from Canon, Red and Avid. Here's a breakdown of the 3 plus my speculations on Canon's future releases.

Canon

At "The Story Begins" event in Hollywood, Canon unveiled the C300 - a Super 35mm Camera that keeps the form factor advantage of the Canon 5D MkII while adding the missing features to make it a more suitable camera for filmmaking. However, with a listed price of $20k, this c300 does not play in the same category as the 5D MkII. In fact, Canon is targeting the prosumers/cinema industry, entering in competition with the Red Epic and Arri Alexa. Check out the behind the scene video of Vincent Laforet short film Mobius for an insight view of the C300.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So what about the indie filmmaker market? Canon announced that they are currently working on a new-concept EOS-series DSLR that "will be ideally suited for cinematographic and other digital high-resolution production applications". This model will have a full frame sensor capable of shooting 4K videos (24P-mpeg compression) and will be part of the next generation EOS Movies. They used a Canon 1DX with a 'C' stamp on the show room which can lead to think this camera could be priced around the same price as the 1Dx (~6800$). I don't think this will be the case. What made the success of the 5D Mk II was its relatively cheap price (around 2000$) and size. A Cinema DSLR 3 times more expensive and bulkier would make the camera out of reach for too many of us. Hence this would result in Canon losing a market where they are currently leader. The 5D MkIII seems to be the logical choice as it has been the number 1 so far and a MkIII would carry on its legacy. However I believe - and this is just a speculation - the 5D MkIII will stay focused on still photography (with probably the same video features introduced with the Canon 1DX) while Canon will unveil another 5D look alike model priced around the same but EOS-Movies stamped for cinematographic applications. But this is just speculations and again I could be wrong.

RED

Red chose the same day to finally introduce the long awaited Red Scarlet-X which seems to be more a striped down version of the Epic rather than the 3K for 3000$ initial concept (2008). Priced a bit under $10.000, the Scarlet-X Canon EF mount can take 5K stills at 12fps and shoot 4K RAW videos at 25fps. It has the same full frame sensor as the Epic, look and weight the same as the Epic...The question is: Is this just an Epic with a capped firmware?

AVID

A bit of a bad timing from Avid to announce their version 6 of Media Composer as the spotlights were all on Canon and Red. Nonetheless, MC6 has some very interesting new features. The first thing you'll notice is the sleek new user interface designed to work more efficiently and better adapt to smaller screens. The app has been rebuilt with a new 64 bit architecture that now supports native AVCHD, RED Epic, ProRes encode/decode, 7.1 surround sound mixing, stereoscopic workflow and much more. Check out the video below for more info.

Click here to view the embedded video.